What is the Best WordPress Framework to Use?

Last Updated on March 28, 2016

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Designing a WordPress theme can be very time-consuming, not to mention difficult and stressful. But there are some that use a Theme Framework. Before having ideas on what the best WordPress Framework, let’s begin by understanding what a Framework is.

Over the years, WordPress theme developers have created schemes and processes to make their work faster and easier. Some start by creating an HTML template and then build the WordPress code around it. This can prove to be very stressful, noting that you have to re-write codes from HTML to PHP, but others just find that easier.

On the other side of the moon, designers start with the rudimentary WordPress codes and build their design around that. For them, this increases the speed of the coding process because they just type in a language that WordPress automatically understands.

And finally, there are those who, in the most efficient way possible, start with a Theme Framework.

What are Theme Frameworks?

Theme Frameworks are tools that make the process of creating functions you see in a WordPress theme a lot easier. They are themes that act as a launching pad for development, thus, speeding the process of creating better layouts and designs. Theme Frameworks provide easy support and creation of child themes, making the usability of WordPress extend to vast horizons.

A “drop-in” code library that is used to facilitate development of a theme.

A stand-alone base/starter Theme that is intended either to be forked into another Theme, or else to be used as a Parent Theme template.

WordPress Theme Frameworks are used as parent themes. This means that all functions lean towards the Theme Framework. Developers can just create child themes to customize styling and leave everything to the parent.

Why Use Theme Frameworks?

They speed up development

They render functional and customizable options

They normally have drag-and-drop options, sliders, SEO and widgets built within the framework

They are easy to modify

The parent themes are well-coded

Bugs can be fixed within updates

You are assured of excellent support

You can customize your theme even if you are not good in coding

Start with WordPress Framework? Or Start from Scratch?

Personally, I think that you should use a Theme Framework, especially when developing a WordPress theme. Why?

What Theme Frameworks Does 1WD Recommend?

Update: This review is really not in depth to help you make informed decision. We decided to rewrite it and review theme frameworks in depth and detail, to make the best choices and pick the framework which is the most suited for you. Read this article about how you can 10x save website development time using WordPress tools, and then go ahead and read detailed Genesis Framework review.

Genesis Theme Framework is highly recommended by many WordPress theme designers. What’s good about Genesis is that it creates a great deal of power and price. It includes highly customizable elements for a not-so-expensive price. Recommended for advanced WordPress Theme designers, this Theme Framework surely is a good deal.

Features:

Cleanly coded design

Search Engine Optimized

Coded using HTML 5

Responsive

Great support and updates

Secure

Custom widgets and layouts

Pros:

One of the best things about Genesis is that it’s a one-time purchase product. That means once you bought the framework for your website, you never have to buy it again. (Isn’t that sweet!). Aside from that, the wide array of child themes give you a great amount of choice! Most of Genesis child themes are beautiful and cleanly written.

Cons:

One of the concerns that most designers have with Genesis is how it affects the learning curve of developers. With a pretty template always there to save your ass, you’ll depend much on it to the point where you no longer develop.

Review:

Overall Rating: B+

I have reviewed Cherry Famework before and I have always found it cool to use. Unlike most items in this list, Cherry Framework is free. Yes, you read that one right. It’s free. And the great thing about that is you get almost the same features from Theme Frameworks you pay for.

Features:

Automatic updates

Great framework-to-child theme relationship

Data management that allows you to backup and restore your framework and its child themes

Bootstrap-based

It’s freakin’ free

Pros:

Cherry framework is probably the easiest to use free Theme Framework I have ever used. With its flexibility, you can easily use Cherry in any WordPress-powered website design you want. It’s even responsive!

Cons:

Review:

Overall Rating: B-

For non-coding designers, Headway can become a very powerful tool. With its drag-and-drop feature, this Theme Framework would make designing easier and faster. This gives users the steering wheel to control almost everything they want to without spending some time coding.

Features:

Easy to navigate drag-and-drop interface

Pages are SEO-ready

HTML5 and CSS3 coded

Can customize landing pages

Sleek performance-wise

Grid layout

Pros:

Headway’s visual editor is probably the best feature that makes the Theme Framework a part of this list. If you happen to choose to use CSS, you can still see the changes before making it live in the website. That way, you can tweak and adjust small design details without worrying that it would mess up your whole design.

Cons:

Despite the awesome features of Headway, there are still some things that concern me the most. The learning curve of Headway is sort of steep. You need to experiment on features first before memorizing every feature.

Review:

Overall Rating: B+

Framework creators of Ultimatum dubbed this WordPress Theme Framework as the ‘total design suite’. This is probably because you can have the control over the details of your website without even coding. Well, this is a sort of a sweeping proclamation, but we can make the argument that Ultimatum is one of the best out there.

Features:

Cool slideshows

Shortcodes

Amazing form builder

Visual composer page builder

Layer slider

Revolution slider

ShowBiz Carousels

Post galleries

Post ordering

WooCommerce integration

Pros:

Ultimatum provides a wide array of features, but what I like the best with Ultimatum is that it is widgetized. Every single area on your WordPress site is a widget where you can drag and drop elements and control the design.

Cons:

Aside from the relatively steep learning curve that poses a great challenge for designers, ultimatum is a pretty cool Theme Framework to play around with.

Review:

Overall Rating: A

Thesis 2.0 is a Theme Framework that serves more than 42,000 websites around the globe. It has become one of the best and most talked about frameworks out there. Thesis 2.0 impresses you with its wide variety of fonts, sizes, colors, columns that can be customized in your own accord.

Features:

Customizable Typography

Custom 404 error pages

Great landing pages that convert

Pros:

What makes Thesis 2.0 great is that it allows you to create multiple templates and customize each post with your preferred template. That means you can totally revamp each post’s layout without messing the other posts. Aside from that, Thesis 2.0 has SEO built in the Theme Framework, so no worries about changing titles or meta tags anymore.

Cons:

One of the major concerns for Thesis 2.0 is it’s drag and drop system. I somehow find it unintuitive. Because of that, you tend to add a lot of unused boxes, which mess up the CSS. Sometimes, you find yourself looking for a missing bracket.

Review:

Overall Rating: C+

While X isn’t called a framework, it is built as one. X might feel as a surprising choice to use as a framework but as you keep reading, you will understand why it’s worth giving this theme a try and why I am considering it the best WordPress theme of 2015.

X theme was launched on December 2013 by Scott Marlow and Kyle Wakefield. After working for a year on X theme, they released it to the public one year ago. They don’t have a long background in the WordPress field like the Genesis founder but they are very experienced entrepreneurs. They came in the market with a fresh look to bring in innovation and change.

X theme has been built from a marketer’s perspective, which is what I like most about the X theme. Because in the end, no matter how beautiful your website is, what matters most is that your website gives you the results you desire and the leads to conversions.

Headway

Ultimatum

Thesis 2.0

What’s Your Pick?

What do you think is the best Theme Framework? Make sure you read our Genesis review as it is the best choice for web professionals in 2015.

To finish this article about frameworks, let’s take a look a one tutorial about creating simple WordPress settings page.

Create a Simple WordPress Settings Page

If you are a WordPress user, you might be familiar with the theme settings page. This page can be found under the Appearance Menu or in the Administrator Menu itself. Basically it allows the administrator to change specific settings like logo, text color, Google Analytics code and so on. Perhaps one of the first things you do is tweak that WordPress settings page, for sure.

Though there are some free WordPress templates that have theme settings page, a Premium WordPress theme commonly have this kind of options.

Step 1 – Preparing the files

Before creating the theme settings page, you need to prepare the theme itself. For this example, a simple WordPress theme was created made with Bootstrap 3. You can download it here. It is named bots WordPress theme. Inside you should see the following files:

style.css

sidebar.php

screenshots (png file)

index.php

header.php

functions.php

footer.php

js folder

images folder

fonts folder

css folder

Step 2 – Installing and Activating the Theme

After downloading the theme file, you need to install it, either manually or using the install theme option at the backend. If you don’t know how to install a theme, then, this article might be helpful.

Next, it’s time to activate the theme. Go to Appearance -> Themes and activate the bots WordPress theme.

Step 3 – Registering the Settings Page

Now that everything set up, open up the functions.php file and copy the code below to the very bottom part of the file.

Step 8 – Adding the Custom Logo

To add a custom logo, you need to open our header.php file and add the following code below. Notice that you need to create an if statement to check if the logo image was not set or the default blog title will be displayed.

Step 9 – Adding Advertisement Banners

For the advertisement banners, you have 2 choices: the 743px X 82px banner and 268px X 268px banner. For the 743px X 82px banner, add the following code on the index.php file above the article roll excerpt.

Now for our 268px X 268px banner, the following code above the sidebar call function.

[html]&amp;amp;lt;?php echo $options[‘banner2’]; ?&amp;amp;gt;[/html]

Step 10 – Adding the Footer Text

Adding the footer text is just like the custom logo codes; however, this time, you need to check for text, not the image. Open up the footer.php file and copy the code below inside the div with a class col-md-12.

Our Finished Product

Conclusion

And that’s really it! That’s is how you can create your own theme settings page. Although you have done this manually, there are plenty of WordPress Settings library you can use to create more advance and dynamic settings page like WordPress Settings Library by Laura Dobkins.

For more in depth reviews and tips and tricks, make sure to look at these two article 10x save website development time using WordPress tools, and then go ahead and read detailed Genesis Framework review. Let me know about your thoughts regarding this tutorial on the comment Section. See you again next time!

Comments

Article is a good read that clears the doubt about why CMS development companies should opt for a framework rather than using an in-built theme. WordPress is a great enterprise web content management system that allows to create powerful websites and manage them effortlessly. The rich set of Framework, themes and modules make WP a complete website development package.There are various frameworks available for WordPress that acts as a base of website. Thesis is an efficient framework that comes with drag and drop functionality to customize a fine-tuned web design. But while considering the flexibility and scalability, I feel Genesis and Beans are a far better frameworks to use. Beans is a brand new framework built on UIKit that help you build light-weight, fast and responsive WordPress themes. It is one such framework which has been designed keeping SEO in mind and works on the child theme model that allows developers to design custom themes effortlessly.

I went with Ultimatum as well but I don’t feel it’s mature enough, nor that it would be improved as fast as others are. Wish I could push it further somehow on this matter.

Still lacks the maturity and ease of use that could be implemented without much hassle imo. I went with it from a web designer not dev perspective, so others may find it ideal/sufficient. The learning curve is not steep, provided you don’t expect to deliver a website in the same week you started discovering it.

Still looking into alternatives and considering other approaches, but indeed, out of the bunch, Ultimatum is the web designer, less dev, easy way out.

I find it unimaginable that Builder is not on this list. Great framework. Great support. Flexible. Good for beginners. Good for more advanced users. And Thesis is on the list? I thought that was long dead and gone – as it should be.

I use both Ultimatum and Headway. I think Ultimatum has a feature set that’s unbeatable, but they’ve been hit/miss on support and updates due to illness of the principal, so I have been working with Headway as a very close alternative. I don’t mind paying for a great frame, so long as it a sustainable model and will be around in support for a while.